Extent of Digitalization of Tourism Microenterprises in Sorsogon City

This research assessed the extent of digitalization of Sorsogon City’s tourism microenterprises through a quantitative descriptive method. The researchers obtained responses from 77 tourism microenterprises through structured questionnaires which resulted in a 71% response rate from the 108 identified establishments. The tourism sector consisted mainly of food and beverage services at 45.45% and accommodation establishments at 38.96% while most businesses operated less than a year and employed between 1 to 3 staff members. The analysis of digital adoption revealed that tourism businesses extensively used basic technologies including smartphones at 88.31% and intermediate technologies including social media at 74.03% and e-payment systems at 63.64% but they underutilized advanced technologies for data analysis and customer relationship management. The business model dimensions showed different levels of digitalization where marketing and sales and customer interactions achieved the highest integration at overall weighted mean of 3.67 with “mostly digitalized” while partnerships obtained the lowest at overall weighted mean of “2.73”. The research results showed that microenterprises used digital tools mainly to interact with customers instead of using them to enhance their business operations which could restrict their ability to grow competitively in the long run. The research suggests that businesses should expand their digital adoption beyond customer engagement through specific training programs and enhanced government backing to achieve complete digital transformation that supports the Tourism Act of 2009 and UN Sustainable Development Goals.